Girls Basketball: Spring-Ford advances to Final Four of states

NEW HOLLAND — All season long, the Spring-Ford girls have been on a mission to make it further than they did last year. And after 32 games, that goal is finally right at their fingertips after they advanced to the PIAA Class AAAA Final Four for the second straight season on Friday night with a 67-45 win over Dover at Garden Spot High School.

One Ram or another seemed to have a hot hand the entire night as five players scored at least nine points, including 15 apiece by Sammy Stipa and Sarah Payonk. Alayah Hall scored 20 for Dover. Spring-Ford (30-2) will face Cardinal O’Hara, a 60-24 winner over Central Dauphin, in a Tuesday semifinal at a time and place to be determined.

“We don’t want to take any game for granted,” said Ram senior Courtney Hinnant, who came off the bench for nine points and eight rebounds, including three points late in the first quarter after the Eagles (27-4) had cut the lead to two. “We don’t want what happened last year (a 65-43 semifinal loss to Archbishop Carroll) to happen again. We’ve been giving it our all all season.”

“We want to take one game at a time,” said Stipa. “We want to overcome what we did last year.”

Spring-Ford led from start to finish against the fourth-place team from District 3 as Shelby Mueller (9 points, 6 rebounds) scored two straight baskets to start the game, both off passes from Sammi Haas (11 points). A break away score by Brittany Moore made it 6-0 after three minutes before Maxine Herman (7 points, 6 rebounds) put in a backdoor basket on a pass from Megan Lokhaiser (10 points, 3 assists).

Dover closed to within 11-9 with three minutes left in the opening quarter when Hall drove the middle and wound up with a three-point play. But Hinnant hit a free throw, Haas knocked down a three-pointer from the top of the circle, and Hinnant put in a basket off an offensive rebound for a 17-9 advantage after a quarter.

That set a pattern for the Rams as somebody seemed to get hot just at the right time whenever Dover started to rally. Stipa poured in nine points in the second quarter, including a three-point bomb from the top of the circle off an inbounds pass from Payonk to give the Rams their first double-digit lead of the night at 28-18. Then Payonk took control in the third quarter with 11 points and four rebounds as Spring-Ford blew open what had become just a nine-point lead following three free throws by Lokhaiser to 16 points by the end of the quarter.

“We knew when they were coming close, we had to keep up our intensity and push the ball,” said Stipa. “Definitely, the team has a lot of confidence in each other.”

“We have a lot of depth,” Hinnant added. “If one player isn’t having the best game, somebody can step up and take over. We can go deep on our bench. We’re not selfish teammates at all. We look for the open three and look inside.”

The Rams’ usual pressure defense eventually forced Dover turnovers, but the Eagles stayed within range much of the way with some strong defense of their own that caused 18 Spring-Ford miscues.

“They really come after you full-court,” said Spring-Ford coach Jeff Rinehimer. “That’s an awesome job by their coaching staff.”

But the Rams kept on scoring — many times inside — as they shot an even 50 percent from the floor for the night (24-for-48).

“We were just kind of doing our rotation,” Rinehimer added. “Especially with their big kid injured, they didn’t throw out a huge team. We weren’t trying to go big or small, just get to the hole. That’s playoffs. You’ve got to get to the basket. Your shots aren’t always going to be there. And you’ve got to get to the foul line. They just had to rise to the occasion.”

And the Rams did, just as they had while winning Pioneer Athletic Conference and District 1 titles for the second year in a row.

“We definitely were able to work as a team,” said Stipa. “We kept communicating and picking each other up. We weren’t counting on just one person.”

NOTES: Payonk had eight rebounds and four blocked shots. Moore had five of the Rams’ nine steals and Stipa added a game-high four assists. In the second game of the girls AAAA doubleheader at Garden Spot, Cumberland Valley came out on top of North Penn by a 53-36 score and will take on Chartiers Valley, a 48-37 winner over Mt. Lebanon, in the other semifinal.